


Semi-Sweet

by Rosie447



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Chocolate, Friendship, Gen, post 2x18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 14:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11830371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosie447/pseuds/Rosie447
Summary: Following his fight with Magnus, Alec goes to the roof of the Institute to clear his head. He's offered support from an unlikely source.Fraywood friendship and chocolate.





	Semi-Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> I think Clary and Alec have such an interesting relationship (friendship, obviously) and so I thought I'd write a short story about Clary supporting Alec through the end of 2B and his fight with Magnus. This is my first time publishing a Shadowhunters story, so I would love feedback on writing the different characters. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

There was something about the balcony above the Institute that was inexplicably calming, with the New York skyline stretching off of it into infinity and haphazard stars flicking above. Despite the bustle below, it felt isolated, and still. Alec had always gone there when he needed to clear his head. Now, however, everything felt wrong. The stars flickering seemed taunting, the city colors too bright, and what was once isolated and peaceful now seemed lonely and sad. Alec sank to a sitting position, his back against the concrete. He needed to be downstairs, keeping an eye on everyone in the Institute, regulating as things dissolved into chaos around him.

There were a lot of things he needed to be doing. Important things he needed to think about. And yet all he could think about was Magnus.

Magnus, who had endured cruelty for centuries, and only became more compassionate. Magnus, who was gorgeous and understanding and funny and better than Alec knew it was possible for a person to be. Magnus who’d opened up to him, allowed him to see beneath his beautiful smile an even more beautiful soul. Magnus, he thought, who he’d lost forever because he’d been too afraid to defy orders, and too quick to deny himself.

His breaths were slightly shallow, leaving wisps of smoke in the brisk night, and the sounds of the city were somehow both too loud and too far away.

The door to the balcony opened, and Alec drew himself up. A flutter of annoyance interrupted his thoughts as Clary walked out, her too-clean combat boots making hollow sounds on the stones beneath them.

“Hey,” she said, and it was all Alec could do not to glare at her. “I heard what happened with Magnus.” Her voice was soft as if she were afraid he’d lash out at her. Which, in all fairness, sounded like something he might have done when he’d first met her. “Look,” she said. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to right now. In fact, I don’t think I'm even on the list.” She shook her head, rubbing her arms for warmth. “But for what it’s worth, you can always talk to me.”

He nodded once. He didn’t want to talk to her, though on some level he recognized that it was nice of her to offer.

“I mean,” she continued (because she seemed incapable of quitting while she was ahead). “I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with it,” he pointed out, the words sounding harsher than he’d meant them to. “It was my fault,” he added, his voice so low he didn't know if she'd heard it or not.

“I know,” she said. “I meant sorry as in it sucks that that happened and I want to show my support.” She sighed. “Look - here.” She held out something to him. “I’m really bad at talking and you don’t even like me.”

Alec took it, and read the label, and shot her a confused look.

“Why did you give me a chocolate bar?”

She flushed. “I’m guessing that it’s a mundane thing, then?”

His silence was enough clarification for her. 

“Oh,” she said. “Well, mundanes give their friends chocolate when they’re upset about stuff. Because, like, chocolate has endorphins and stuff. Plus it’s delicious. It’s just something you do.”

Mundanes were strange, and they weren't really friends, but Alec did like chocolate.

“Thanks,” he said, finally, and began opening it, mostly because she was staring at him with a sort of deer in headlights expression that said she hadn’t thought this conversation through when she’d come out onto the roof. Which wasn’t surprising. She didn’t think things through very often. She offered him a small smile and turned to leave.

“Wait,” he said, pausing. “Fray.”

She turned back. “Yeah?”

He snapped the bar in half and held out one of the halves to her. She nodded, shooting him another small smile, and plopped down ungracefully next to him, taking the chocolate. They didn’t talk, each lost in their own thoughts and the semi-sweet bar, which was melting onto their hands. They’d fallen, it seemed, into a quasi-companionable silence, the only sounds being the thrum of the city below and Clary licking chocolate off of her fingers.

It was in moments like these, he could swear he didn’t hate her. Perhaps mundanes were onto something with the whole chocolate thing.


End file.
